The horrific attack on Dasht-e-Barchi hospital run by Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontieres) in Kabul which resulted into 24 casualties so far has left many in utter disbelief. The same day another terrifying incident took place at a funeral in Nangarhar where 32 people got martyred. President Ashraf Ghani was quick to order the resumption of offensive operations against Taliban and other groups.
The Islamic State (IS) group claimed the responsibility of attack on the police commander’s funeral but it is not exactly clear as who is involved in the attack over hospital because none has claimed it yet. Taliban has denied any responsibility of the incident and the US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad blamed ISIS for both attacks in a statement issued on Twitter. This cold-blooded inhuman barbarism invited fierce anger of people from around the globe without any difference of ethnicity and religion. People were enraged and demanded the culprits to be brought to justice. Facebook, twitter and all over the social media, the Kabul incident remained one of the hottest topics under discussion.
Unfortunately, for Afghanistan the episodes of blood and fire are nothing new. Since last two decades it has been continuously burning under the internal chaos and the politics of terror. The smell of flash and rotten bodies with indiscriminate spilling of blood has become an everyday norm in Afghanistan.
According to a recent report about 157,000 people have lost their lives since 2001 and more than 43,000 of them were civilians. The war in Afghanistan has remained multifaceted where Taliban were fighting against the US invasion and occupation of the country and other groups too were active in one way or the other. As the Afghan government was a US led government in respective periods since December 2001, therefore, it also had to bear the brunt of Afghan Taliban’s anger along with the United States. A war-ravaged country which has witnessed not only the loss of human life but also suffered severely in the form of destruction of infrastructure, higher inflation rates, poverty, unemployment, a dysfunctional healthcare system, malnutrition and unhygienic food wanted to look for peace and end this decade long turmoil.
The United States had decided to end her two decades long stay in Afghanistan and wanted to strike a deal with Afghan Taliban. Since 2018 serious efforts were being made to reach an agreement but time and again the dialogues ended without any result due to mistrust between the US and Taliban which were further worsened by some incidents and the peace talks came to a halt. As a consequence of violence and civil war the very fabric of society had been damaged to a greater deal, where naturally the presence of trust deficit was nothing of much surprise. In addition to that the Afghan government also couldn’t trust the Taliban.
Zalmay Khalilzad has pointed out after the Kabul attack that, “the ISIS opposed any Taliban peace agreement and sought to trigger an Iraq-style sectarian war in Afghanistan.” The denial of Taliban to be involved in the Kabul massacre and the US backing Taliban on its stance visibly reflects the will of both the parties to stay committed to 29 Feb agreement between both the parties regarding the peace and future of Afghanistan.
Although, the talks have yet to go on and the final negotiation has yet to take place but so far, a lot has been done to make this deal a success. According to the agreement The United States would withdraw its troops in phases and the Afghan government and Taliban would release prisoners respectively. The Afghan government seems unhappy and reluctant to conclude any peace deal which doesn’t include it directly in the negotiations.
The Afghan government and opposition parties seem to be frustrated with the idea of a future stake holder in the political process with the arrival of the Taliban after a potential agreement with the United States. Even if the government and opposition parties are sincere in their concern, it looks as if they are confused about the political future of the country. Despite the fact that The United States blamed ISIS for the incident and Taliban Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid tweeted that Taliban were not behind the attack, the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is reluctant to accept the innocence of Taliban. The USA has no worries whatsoever about the sort of political process and its shape in future once they finally leave Afghanistan but are indeed in a hurry to get rid of this problem as soon as possible.
It has been to the utter disappointment of the common masses that the political point scoring and blame game has only resulted into pain and loss of life as well as property for the poor. The incompetent and puppet government of Afghanistan tried to label Pakistan as the culprit behind the Kabul massacre. An Afghan government official Najeeb Nangyal shamelessly shared a tweet showing a bag with a Pakistani badge on it next to a rifle. This blatant attempt to intentionally malign a neighboring country by calling it a terrorist state without a real proof was indeed below the belt.
Shockingly as if the stupid and fake post by Najeeb Nangyal wasn’t enough that an Afghan colonel Rahman Rahmani tweeted the same fake picture by calling Pakistan, “a worst neighbor”. The fake image had already appeared in 2014 on a Tumblr account. This shows how non-serious the Afghan government seems to be and lacks the ability to protect its citizens and work for the wellbeing of the people. Despite the sincere wishes and efforts of Pakistan government for building peace in Afghanistan and for her out of the way efforts for the prosperity of the people of Afghanistan, the Afghan government lacks the moral courage and farsightedness to admit Pakistan’s role as a peace broker and remains in a denial mode which will indeed prove disastrous for Afghanistan herself in future.
It is high time that Afghanistan realizes her responsibility for the development of her country and the region and should avoid non serious blame game for once and all. This child like attitude will only further reduce her chances of success.